The present invention relates to consumer electronics and more specifically to a system for activation of an electronic component at a point of sale terminal.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology is being implemented at many large retail establishments at the case and pallet level. Pilot implementation of RFID tagging for individual items has started. It is likely that widespread item-level RFID tagging will follow. A significant problem for retailers has always been inventory shrinkage due to theft or loss of items, which can exceed one percent of total sales revenue. For large retailers, this shrinkage can translate into millions, and for some billions, of dollars. High shrinkage areas within the business include the areas of electronics devices, small home appliances, and multimedia (CD, electronic games, and DVD players). These are high value, high margin products, which are easily concealed, lending to a very high internal as well as external theft rate. Many factors play into high shrinkage, such as poor inventory management, poor hiring and training choices, as well as poor operational practices at the store level. These operational issues lead to excessive product turnover rates, poor customer services with stock outages, all leading to lost sales and lower margins. Depending on the inventory agreement between the retailer and supplier, the financial impact can apply to both. In the end, it is the honest consumer that pays for the incremental cost of inventory shrinkage.
There is a need for a solution to limit the theft or shrinkage of items. RFID tagging of the item level product may help if the RFID tags are used for both checkout and as anti-theft devices. If used as anti-theft RFID tagged items would be scanned at doorways. Tags for which an anti-theft bit had not been deactivated would trigger an alarm. However, RFID as an anti-theft technology may be defeated by various means including the use of metal shielding, or the removal, destruction, or substitution of the tags. Employees may also remove items through doorways that are not equipped with anti-theft scanners or readers. Traditional electric or magnetic ant-theft tags have the same deficiencies. Thus there is a need to employ an improved anti-theft method.